Month: October 2017

Congratulations to our pupils who collected medals today at the South Primary Schools Handball Blitz in John the Baptist CS.

The boys started playing handball following a visit to the school from local handball player Paudí Quish. A multiple All Ireland champion, Paudí then became their coach at Hospital Handball club and today was the first opportunity the boys had to represent their school in the game. They can be very proud of their performances as we had players in both the A & B U11 finals with the U11 A title coming back to the school. It’s great to see our pupils playing one of our national games and hopefully we will have more boys and girls taking up the sport in the coming months.

Our fourth class boys and girls represented the school at the FAI Primary Schools Futsal event in Cappamore on Friday.

The children had been receiving coaching from FAI Development Officer Barry McGann in recent weeks and this was an opportunity to showcase what they had picked up. Both our boys and girls performed very well. The girls finished second in their competition and the boys finished top of their category following a penalty shoot-out with Cappamore. Well done to everyone that took part.

Autumn Display

During October 2nd and 3rd class enjoyed learning how to write letters. Each child sent a letter to a friend or relative and we have been receiving replies from people in Ireland, England, America and Australia!

Space Week 2017 was marked in Herbertstown NS with the launch of six bottle rockets.

The pupils of third and fourth class designed and constructed the rockets using a variety of materials. Their designs were inspired by prior study of The Space Race and the International Space Station. Each rocket was graded in terms of appearance/design and its performance in flight. These scores were provided by the pupils of fifth and six class. The winning group was group 3!

Today we came into school like normal. When everyone was in, Mrs. Heelan told us to clean off our tables. We had no idea why but she just said it was a surprise. After we cleared up everything she announced we were having a visitor. We’ve had all sports people coming to us but today we were having someone teach us chess. His name was John Alfred and he knew quite a lot about it. Some people knew how to play chess but some people had no idea how to do it.

He hd a big leather board which he hung on the wall and he also had some plastic chess pieces which he slotted onto the board. He taught us some history about the game. He then took some flat boards and pieces out of his bag. We were sorted into pairs and told how the pieces worked and what we could do with them. First we learned about the pawns. The pawns could only move forward and take diagonally. If they made it to the other side of the board it could turn into any other piece apart from the King. Then we learned about the Queen. This piece can be moved in any direction as far as it wants. We learned about the Rook and Bishop next. The rook can only be moved forwards, backwards and sideways. The bishop is a completely different story and can only be moved diagonally. Next we learned about the most complicated piece on the board, the Knight. The knight is unusual because it moves in L shapes. It is also the only piece that can jump other pieces. Last but not least the King. The king can only move one space at a time in any direction. It also can’t be captured. You must checkmate it to win. All the pieces have different points and probabilities:

Pawn =1 point

Bishop = 3 points

Knight = 3 points

Rook = 5 points

Queen = 9 points

King = The Game

We played a couple of games after this against each other. He stayed with us until 12 o’clock. And overall I found it quite fun and I’m sure everyone else did. We all said thanks to John and left. After this day we’re ordering a couple of own chess sets to play with in school. Chess is a great, unique game that I love and I hope you like it too.

Congratulations and well done to our Star Award winners for September!

One pupil from each classroom was selected by their class teacher and the award winners were presented with certificates at today’s assembly. They were also given a night off homework for their efforts!

GAA Rounders is one of the official GAA sports, along with Gaelic Football, Camogie, Ladies Football, Hurling and Handball. Rounders has been a GAA Sport from the origin of the GAA and was included in the original GAA Charter back in 1884.

Today, Michael Sheehan from GAA Rounders visited the school to take 3rd to 6th class through some of the basics of the game. Michael plans to visit the school once again next week to build on the start made today. The children really enjoyed running the bases and practising ball handling and teamwork. Rounders was once a popular sport in the school and in local community games and the hope is that with a better understanding of the rules the school will be in a position to promote the game properly.

Pictiúirí

Herberstown NS, Herberstown, Co. Limerick at this years RDS Primary Science Fair Limerick which will see over 3000 primary school students from all over the country exhibit theirSTEM investigations at Mary Immaculate College. Between the three venues of Limerick, Dublin and Belfast there will be over 7000 participants in 2018. Photo: Oisin McHugh True Media